Giulio Cainelli

This paper aims at analysing the impact of environmentally oriented innovative strategies on firms’ economic performance in terms of employment, turnover and labour productivity growth. We exploit a unique dataset of 773 Italian service firms with 20 or more employees, based on 1993–1995 Community Innovation Survey (CIS) II data on innovation strategies and 1995–1998 System of the Enterprise Account (SEA). Using a Gibrat‐like empirical model, our findings show a negative link between environmental motivations and growth in employment and turnover in the short term, which then associates to a not significant or even negative effect on labour productivity growth, a result which is explainable by various factors: non‐mature markets; early movers that need more time to grasp the benefits of innovative actions; weaknesses of some service branches. The effect on employment is in part compatible with the existing evidence and may be based on efficiency improvements (dematerialisation processes), which also impact on efficiency by reducing workforce numbers. The effect on turnover of environmental innovation strategy is negative, implying either a short‐medium effect, possibly balanced in the long run by net benefits in terms of higher added value, or a real negative impact, which may be contingent on the period of observation, when environmental strategies where not at the heart of strategic management policies. Neither Porter‐like effects nor virtuous circles among environmentally strategies and performance seem to be present, at least in the short run and for services firms, calling for the necessity of further analyses on medium‐ long‐term effects and performances of specific service branches. Though effects on performances could turn out positive in the long run when mature green markets and investments provide their benefits, our evidence highlights that services could still find hard times in tackling the well‐known low productivity ‘disease’ even in the environmental realm.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of technology and spatial agglomeration in decisions about vertical integration. It starts from the hypothesis that the business group, defined as a set of firms under common ownership and control, is the appropriate unit to delimit the firm’s boundary. We use information drawn from input–output tables to detect the presence of positive inter‐industry exchanges and whether or not activities in a group are vertically related. Accounting for endogeneity problems, we estimate Probit and Linear Probability models to investigate the role of technology and spatial agglomeration on vertical integration decisions empirically. Consistent with property rights theory, our results show that the technology intensity of acquirers matters for backward integration choices and, moreover, that agglomeration plays a role in vertical integration only when it operates jointly with technology.

ABSTRACT  The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact on firms' productivity of innovative activities and agglomeration effects among firms belonging to Marshallian industrial districts and the possible joint effect of these two forces. We study a sample of 2,821 firms active in the Italian manufacturing industry in the period 1992–1995. Our analysis uses an original data set based on three different Istituto Nazionale di Statistica statistical sources—Community Innovation Survey, Archivio Statistico delle Imprese Attive (Italian Business Register), and Sistema dei Conti delle Imprese (Italian Structural Business Statistics)—to estimate an “augmented” Cobb‐Douglas production function to account for the impact of technological innovations and district‐specific agglomeration effects on a firm's productivity growth. Our data set allows us to distinguish between product and process innovations, thus, through econometric analysis, we hope to achieve a better understanding of which of these two types of innovative activities benefits most from participation in an industrial district. Our empirical results show that belonging to an industrial district and making product innovations are key factors in the productivity growth of firms and that product innovations appear to have a greater effect on the economic performance of district rather than non‐district firms.

Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. and Morganti E. (2006) Spatial agglomeration and business groups: new evidence from Italian industrial districts, Regional Studies 40, 507–518. This paper is a first attempt to analyse the relationship between spatial agglomeration and firms' organizational structures. It takes advantage of a new and large data set at firm and business group level that allows one to analyse the differences in the presence and characteristics of business groups between districts and non-district areas. Overall, the results confirm the hypothesis that spatial agglomeration of business activities influences firms' organization. Groups are more widespread in industrial districts than in non-district areas; moreover, groups in industrial districts are less diversified and more spatially concentrated than groups outside industrial districts. Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. et Morganti E. (2006) L'agglomération géographique et les groupes commerciaux: de nouvelles preuves provenant des districts italiens, Regional Studies 40, 507–518. Cet article constitue une première tentative d'analyser le rapport entre l'agglommération géographique et les structures organisationnelles des entreprises. On profite d'une nouvelle banque de données importante auprès des entreprises et des activités commerciales qui permet l'analyse des différences de la présence et des caractéristiques des groupes commerciaux implantés dans les districts par rapport à ceux qui sont implantés dans d'autres délimitations géographiques. Tout considéré, les résultats confirment l'hypothèse suivant: l'agglomération des activités commerciales influent sur l'organisation des entreprises. Les groupes s'avèrent plus éparpillés dans les districts industriels qu'ils ne le sont ailleurs. Qui plus est, les groupes situés dans les districts industriels sont moins diversifiés et plus concentrés géographiquement que ne le sont les groupes situés en dehors des districts industriels. Groupes commerciaux, Districts industriels, Agglomération géographique, Formes d'organisation des entreprises Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. und Morganti E. (2006) Räumliche Ballung und Betriebsgruppen:neue Beweise aus italienischen Industriegebieten, Regional Studies 40, 507–518. Dieser Aufsatz stellt einen ersten Versuch dar, die Beziehung zwischen räumlicher Ballung und den organisatorischen Strukturen von Firmen zu analysieren. Er macht sich eine neue und umfassende Datenreihe auf Firmen- und Betriebsgruppenebene zu Nutze, die gestattet, die Unterschiede im Vorhandenseins und Eigenschaften von Betriebsgruppen zwischen Distrikten und nicht-Distrikten-angehö rigen Gebieten zu analysieren. Insgesamt bestätigen die Ergebnisse die Hypothese, dass räumliche Ballung von geschäftlichen Unternehmen die Organisation von Firmen beeinflußt: Gruppen sind in Industriegebieten weiter verbreitet als in nicht industriell geprägten Gebieten;darüber hinaus sind Gruppen in Industriegebieten weniger differenziert und räumlich stärker konzentriert als Gruppen ausserhalb der Industriegebiete Betriebsgruppen, Industriegebiete, räumliche Ballung, Organisationsformen von Firmen Cainelli G., Iacobucci D. y Morganti E. (2006) Aglomeración espacial y grupos comerciales: nuevo ejemplo de zonas industriales en Italia, Regional Studies 40, 507–518. En este ensayo pretendemos analizar por primera vez la relación entre la aglomeración espacial y las estructuras organizativas de las empresas. Con ayuda de un nuevo y exhaustivo grupo de datos sobre empresas y negocios, analizamos qué diferencias existen en cuanto a la presencia y las características de grupos comerciales en zonas industriales comparado con otras áreas no industriales. En general los resultados confirman la hipó tesis de que la organización de las empresas se ve influenciada por la aglomeración espacial de las actividades comerciales. Se observa que son más comunes los grupos en zonas industriales que en áreas no industriales. Además, los grupos en zonas industriales están menos diversificados y espacialmente más concentrados que los grupos de otras áreas no industriales. Grupos comerciales, Zonas industriales, Aglomeración espacial, Formas organizativas de empresas

The aim of this paper is to show that Italian manufacturing firms belonging to Marshallian industrial districts carry out a higher innovative effort than is usually acknowledged. The empirical analysis makes use of a panel of 1,218 district and non‐district firms belonging to traditional sectors. Data refers to the years 1992 and 1995. We have estimated an augmented Cobb–Douglas production function. The estimates make it possible to empirically identify three different determinants of firms’ productivity: (i) the intentional innovative activity; (ii) the “district effect”; and (iii) the joint district and innovation effect. The results show that firms’ membership in industrial districts and product innovations are key factors in explaining the productivity of firms working in traditional Italian sectors.